Computer simulation of the relation between mechanical behavior and structural evolution of oxide ceramics under dynamic loading

Computer simulation is used to investigate the deformation and damage processes taking place in brittle porous oxide ceramics under intense dynamic loading. The pore structure is shown to substantially affect the size of the fragments and the strength of the materials. In porous ceramics subjected to shock loading, deformation is localized in mesoscopic bands having characteristic orientations along, across, and at ∼45° to the direction of propagation of the shock wave front. The localized-deformation bands may be transformed into macroscopic cracks. A method is proposed for a theoretical estimation of the effective elastic moduli of ceramics with pore structure without resorting to well-known hypotheses for the relation between elastic moduli and porosity of the materials.